Music! Music! Music!

Those who know me well, know that I have eclectic music preferences. From classical to country, swing to disco, I like it.

Now that’s not to say that I like everything in each of those genres. For instance, I can’t stand Elvira or Swingin’. Ring My Bell makes me cringe. I detest the 1980s’, Don’t Worry Be Happy, yet I enjoy its 1960s counterpart, The 59^th Street Bridge Song.

Funny how music affects us.  Via our memories, music can transport us to a specific time in our lives or trigger a feeling from the distant past. Ninety percent of the time, I can make such a connection between a piece of music and something in my life.

I recently heard the opening music of Captain Kangaroo – my favorite show as a child – and immediately, albeit briefly, felt that excited anticipation I always felt as the show was beginning. A couple of months ago, as a part of its 60^th anniversary celebration, KWCH in Wichita aired the first couple Beverly Hillbillies episodes. There was a joy in hearing “Come and listen to a story ‘bout a man named Jed…” that I haven’t felt in years.

Marching band music is designed to generate excitement, yet there is a level of excitement created as the Salina Central drum corps marches in below Salina Stadium that I get nowhere else. Certain disco songs take me back to summer evenings during high school, when I was out with my friends and there was a bit of a cooling breeze buffeting our faces as we enjoyed life.

Another disco song, Kool and the Gang’s Celebration, takes me back to my Fort Hays days, specifically to DJs, a now defunct bar in Hays where one could “party with 900 of your closest friends.” (It was in an old Dillon’s store.) Then we thought it was fun. Now I would be concerned that I would have to wait at least a half hour to get into a restroom!

Sometimes I don’t understand why a song takes me back to a specific event. For instance, every time I hear Gerry Rafferty’s Baker Street, I flash back to Salina Stadium in May of 1978 when the class ahead of mine was graduating. I know Baker Street was released that year, but why it takes me back to that particular graduation is a mystery.

I always thought it odd that I so enjoyed Moolight Serenade until years later I learned that it was my parents’ “song.” Enough said.

Music and my mood are directly linked. Either music affects my mood or because of my mood, I listen to a particular type of music. Sometimes, I find that I need to recapture a particular feeling, so I listen to music my mind has linked to that feeling. I have put together playlists on Spotify to correspond to particular moods/feelings. What I listen to one day may not appeal to me the next. As I write this, I am listening to a ‘70s mix and it is fitting my mood quite nicely.

I don’t understand why some people insist on slamming others because of the music to which they listen. I’m not overly fond of hair bands, for instance, yet I have friends who are. And you can be quite sure that I will make no apologies for enjoying disco. To each his own, I say.

Music has an important role in our lives, at least it does in mine. Make time to enjoy some music and see where it takes you!